The Securities and Change Fee final week barred a Florida man from performing as an advisor or dealer after he allegedly operated a Ponzi-like program and raised not less than $6.6 million from buyers regardless of having no securities license.
The SEC filed a civil criticism in U.S. district courtroom in Florida in September in opposition to Rafael Alberto Vargas Gonzalez, also referred to as Rafael Vargas, 42, who had acted as CEO of Empirex Capital LLC in Miami since forming the corporate in 2018, the fee famous in an order Thursday.
Vargas was by no means registered with the SEC or any state securities regulator, nor did he ever maintain any securities licenses, and Empirex’s funding choices have been by no means registered with the company, in keeping with the order, which bars Vargas from affiliation with any dealer, vendor, funding advisor, municipal securities vendor, municipal advisor, switch agent or nationally acknowledged statistical score group.
The criticism alleged, amongst different factors, that from July 2018 by way of not less than March 2023, Vargas and Empirex raised not less than $6.6 million from 162 or extra buyers within the U.S. and overseas “by making repeated materials misrepresentations and receiving compensation for making funding advisement choices for these buyers,” the SEC wrote.
“As alleged, the misrepresentations involved Vargas’s and Empirex’s use of belongings obtained from buyers, the profitability of Empirex’s buying and selling actions, Empirex’s belongings below administration, Vargas’s and Empirex’s {qualifications} to handle buyers’ belongings and their backgrounds, and the dangers of investing with Empirex.